


The Right Thing

by Blueskydancers



Series: Secrets and Consequences [4]
Category: Lord of the Rings RPF, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, My version of The Sweeney - the 70s TV series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-07 00:09:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3153443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueskydancers/pseuds/Blueskydancers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sean sat back in his chair, adopting a pose of indifference, though he didn’t really feel that way about the scroat sitting opposite him. Eddie Walker and his brother Charlie were lightweights who had somehow got themselves mixed up with a heavy mob of security van robbers that Sean and his team had been after for months.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Right Thing

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place in July 1981

**July 1981**  
“Come off it, Eddie. I know you and your brother were involved in the blag. You were the lookout and he drove one of the getaway cars. We’ve got you bang to rights and just as soon as we pick up Charlie the pair of you will be sharing a nice little cell in the Scrubs and having to piss in a bucket because we will oppose any bail application your brief makes.”

Sean sat back in his chair, adopting a pose of indifference, though he didn’t really feel that way about the scroat sitting opposite him. Eddie Walker and his brother Charlie were lightweights who had somehow got themselves mixed up with a heavy mob of security van robbers that Sean and his team had been after for months. Up to now the gang had been so far off the normal informant’s radar that Sean hadn’t managed a sniff of them. But now, he very much hoped that had changed. Even though he came from a family of crooks, Eddie was a novice and low down on the food chain; he wasn’t going to be able to keep his mouth shut indefinitely. All Sean had to do was lean on him and he would crack, then they could net the rest of the team. There was no hurry; Eddie was going to be charged so unofficially Sean could hold him here indefinitely.

Eddie was already fidgeting but so far his mouth had remained tightly shut. 

“Come on, Eddie, I’ve not got all day, I’ve got fifteen cases I’m working on right now and I really don’t need to spend my time here with you.”

“I want to see my lawyer, Mr Bean.”

“We’ve sent for him but you know what these legal-aid briefs are like; he won’t be here until he’s had his lunch.” Sean looked at his watch, “and that’s got to be at least four hours away. Talk to me now and who knows, maybe we can work something out so that you don’t need him.”

Eddie twisted his hands together nervously, where they rested on the bare table in front of him. He looked tired and more to the point scared. “I can’t say anything Mr Bean, honestly. They’d kill me if I did.”

“We can protect you, Eddie, you know that.” Sean leaned forward, sensing that Eddie’s resolve was wavering.

The teenager shook his head. “No you can’t. Not from this lot. They’re connected and they’d go after me mum if I said anything.”

“Connected?” Sean wanted to know, “as in the Italians?”

“No, as in the Irish lot. Your lot can’t protect me or my family from them so I’m not saying anything else.” Eddie crossed his arms and stared at Sean defiantly.

“Come off it, Eddie, you don’t expect me to believe that you and Charlie managed to get involved with a bunch of terrorists? Why would they look twice at you two?”

“I’m not naming names, Mr Bean.”

“Okay, Eddie. I tell you what, I’m going for a walk and you can have a think about what’s going to happen.”

“DI Bean, suspending the interview at ten twenty five.” Reaching over to the tape recorder that had been running throughout the interview, Sean switched it off. “Remember, Eddie, we can help you if you help us.”

Without waiting for a response, Sean left the room, closing the door and locking it behind him, before heading upstairs to the squad room.

Their office was almost empty when Sean got there; just Lando and a couple of the other guys were still at their desks. 

“Where is everyone?” Sean said as he walked over to his desk and flopped down in his worn office chair.

Lando looked up and over the desk at him. “We had a shout and DI Halliwell needed some backup and as there wasn’t much going on Griffiths decided that we could help out.”

“How did you manage to get out of it?”

“Ah well I claimed that I needed to help you interrogate Eddie.”

“You crafty bugger.”

Lando leaned forward and lowered his voice. “As I recall, it was you buggering me last night.”

“So it was.” Sean couldn’t hold back his grin. It had been Norm’s birthday yesterday so the squad had retired to their local after work and he and Lando had ended up going home together. Sean groin tingled as he remembered the sensation of Lando’s tight arse around his cock when he’d fucked him on the front room carpet. It had been a good night.

“You want a coffee?” Lando’s voice drew him away from the pleasant memories.

“Yeah, please. It’ll give Eddie a bit longer to stew.”

Over the noise of the boiling kettle Lando said, “Has he said anything useful yet?”

Sean shook his head and waited until Lando carried the two cups over to the desk. “Nah, he’s scared shitless about the team he was working with. Swears blind they’ll get to him or his mum if he grasses on them.”

“Really?”

“Yeah and he also said that they weren’t your average blagger. He said they were connected to the Provos.”

“What? The IRA?” Lando’s head twisted round so fast, Sean thought he would get whiplash.

“I wondered if maybe they were pulling these jobs to raise some funds, you know to finance their next bombing campaign or something.”

“You’re sure he’s not just talking out of his arse to avoid a stretch?”

Sean shook his head. “No I don’t think so. Despite his age Eddie is old school and knows the score. His dad was a thief and he and Charlie grew up learning the trade from a young age. He’s mixed up in something that is too big for him and he knows it. Right now he thinks if he keeps his mouth shut and does the time…“

“He’ll only get a suspended sentence anyway for a first offence.” Lando interrupted, “All he has to do is keep quiet and he’s laughing.”

“I don’t think so. I get the feeling that these men are not going to take any chances. Eddie believes they are terrorists and I think he might be right. Let’s face it we’ve not got a sniff of them anywhere else and that isn’t normal.”

“So what do we do now? Follow procedure and call in Special Branch?”

Sean sighed, “I don’t want to because the bastards have been working our patch but if I can’t persuade Eddie to spill the beans then we might have to.” Sean drank the last of his coffee. “Tell you what, I’m going to go down and have another word with him. Maybe mention Special Branch and see what he does.”

“He’ll probably piss himself.”

“Yeah he might.” With that Sean stood and headed back downstairs.

He hadn’t made it back to the interview room when sirens started blaring out around the building and Lando came charging down the stairs to the custody area.

“What’s going on?” Sean demanded.

Above the noise of the siren Lando shouted back, “It’s a bomb scare. A coded phone call to the Yard; we’ve got to evacuate the building.”

“Shit! This is too much of a coincidence.” Sean cursed. “Lando, get Dave, I’ll bring Eddie, we need to get him out of here to somewhere safe.”

“Okay, guv.”

Sean was grateful that Lan didn’t question him, just got on with what he had to do.

Ignoring the chaos in the holding area as the other prisoners were hustled out by the uniformed boys, Sean opened the interview room door and stuck his head through the gap. Walker was up out of the chair and pacing nervously. “Come on, Eddie, we’re going for a ride.”

Walker didn’t hesitate, grabbing his jacket from the back of the chair, he followed Sean out. On reaching the car park, Sean looked around hoping that Lando had managed to organise some sort of transport.

Almost immediately an unmarked car pulled up in front of him, with Lando in the driver’s seat. Shoving Eddie into the back, Sean got into the front. With a screech of tyres Lando took off. “Where’s Dave?”

“I don’t bloody know. I couldn’t find him and I figured we were in a hurry. I’ve done the advanced driving training course so I’ll get us there. You get on the radio and tell them at Paddington we’re on our way.”

As soon as they left the yard at the back of the nick, Sean had to brace himself between the door and the dashboard as Lando started throwing the big car around corners.

Glancing into the back seat, Sean saw young Eddie hanging onto the grab handle for dear life. “Bloody hell, Lando, take it easy. We want to get there in one piece and we don’t need to be pulled over by the uniforms for dangerous driving.”

Looking to his right, Sean saw a huge grin split his skipper’s face. “You’re no fun, guv, you know that.”

“Yeah, so I’ve been told.” Sean contented himself with glaring at Lando until he slowed their speed. “How long will it take us to get there?”

“Around an hour if the traffic is bad, less if I use the blues and twos.”

“Let’s stay low key, at least to start with.”

Sean picked up the microphone for the radio and after a few minutes got through to Paddington Green and let them know they were on their way.

Turning towards the back of the car he said to Eddie. “I’m taking you to Paddington because that’s a maximum security nick. They’ll look after you until Special Branch come to talk to you.”

“What? Special Branch? Why? Mr Bean, I never said anything about wanting to talk to Special Branch.”

“Yeah I know that, Eddie, but you mentioned the IRA and anything to do with terrorists has to be reported. Special Branch get real arsy with us if we don’t share information.”

“I’m not going to talk to them. They’ll hurt me mum.” 

“Look, Eddie, it’ll be okay. Special Branch know what they’re doing. They’ve dealt with the IRA for a long time.”

Eddie didn’t utter a word; instead he folded his arms and turned his head away, pretending to look out of the window.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Two weeks later**  
Lan was the only one still at his desk when Sean walked into the squad room. It was after eight and everyone else had gone home, but Lan had hoped that he and Sean could get together that evening which was why he had found some paperwork he could use as an excuse to stay on.

The look on Sean’s face was enough to make Lan reach for the bottle of scotch and glass he kept in his desk drawer. He poured a large measure into the glass and handed it wordlessly to Sean who tossed it back in one go.

“Jesus, Sean, what’s wrong?”

Sean held out the glass to be refilled. Having done so Lan screwed the top back onto the bottle and put it away in his desk drawer. There was no way he was going to let Sean get pissed while he was still on duty and in the office no matter what the justification.

Sean sipped at his drink this time. “You want to come back to my place?”

“Sure.” Lan’s cock wasn’t at all concerned that Sean was upset, it began to throb happily at the chance of some action. Willing it to calm down, Lan gathered the paperwork on his desk together and stuffed it in a desk drawer.

Once Sean had handed him back the glass, he picked up his jacket. As they left the squad room, Lan switched off the light.

They managed to get a taxi pretty quickly and when Sean had given the driver the address Lan said, “So you want to pick up some takeaway?”

Sean shook his head. “Nah, I’m not really hungry. You can get something if you want.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll get something later, maybe on my way home.”

By the time they got out of the taxi and Sean had paid the driver, Lan wasn’t sure if he was worried or severely pissed off by Sean uncommunicativeness. After the discussion about food the rest of the journey had passed in silence with any attempt Lan made to carry on a conversation greeted with a grunt and nothing more. Any desire he had to get laid had long since disappeared.

He followed Sean into his living room, throwing his coat over the back of the sofa and loosening his tie. Sean made for the drinks and poured them both a large measure. Taking a seat on the sofa, Lan waited while Sean shed his jacket and tie and sat down in the single armchair facing him.

“Are you going to tell me what’s happened?” He knew he sounded arsy but Sean had asked him here and he wanted to know what the fuck was going on.

“I got a call from Special Branch earlier. They found Eddie Walker’s body in a burning car last night.”

“What? But how? I thought he was in protective custody.”

Sean stared into his glass for a while before answering. “They lost him.”

“Lost him? How?” Lan wondered briefly when he had turned into a parrot.

“The silly bugger gave his minder the slip. The next time they saw him he was toast.”

Lan took a swig of his drink and waited while it burned its way down his throat. “Jesus. It looks like he really was involved with the wrong people.”

“So I did the right thing, followed the rules and handed him over to Special Branch. And now he’s dead.” Sean said bitterly. “If we’d kept hold of him it would have turned out differently.”

“You can’t know that.”

Sean sat back in the armchair and closed his eyes. “Yes I do. Those stupid bastards at Special Branch aren’t used to dealing with scroats like Eddie. If he’d been an Oxbridge graduate they would have coped fine. I should have broken the rules and kept Eddie in our custody.”

While Lan wanted to argue that Sean had done the right thing in handing Eddie over to Special Branch, and that breaking the rules couldn’t be justified, wasn’t he guilty of doing just that himself? 

Late last year, just after he’d joined the squad, he’d given evidence which had meant a murderer went to prison. While there was no doubt about the Honourable Marcus’ guilt, Lan had lied under oath to cover up for his ability to see past events. It was a situation where the ends justified the means and apart from the details didn’t appreciably differ from Sean’s position over Eddie.

When Lan glanced up, he saw that Sean was looking at him intently. “What?”

“I would have expected you to be telling me that breaking the rules is never justified.”

Lan sighed, it was true. Once you started lying – even by omission – the web just grew more tangled. Finally, after a long period of silence he responded. “I might have done once but in this job, where you see the best and worst of people, I’m beginning to think that in some situations the ends can justify the means.”

With an odd smile on his face, Sean stood and walked over until he was standing in front of Lan. Reaching down he took the empty glass out of his hand and put it down on the coffee table. “You want to go upstairs then?”

With a feeling of relief that he wasn’t going to have to examine his own motives too carefully, at least right now, Lan nodded. But he fully expected it to come back and haunt him in the future.


End file.
